WASHINGTON: A former corrections officer at the US Penitentiary in Leavenworth entered a guilty plea Monday to accepting bribes to smuggle tobacco and rolling papers inside his shoes to inmates of the federal facility.
Marc Buckner, 47, of Kansas City, Kan., could be sentenced to 15 years in prison by a US District Court judge for earning more than $200,000 from a smuggling operation that persisted from 2005 to 2014. Tobacco is contraband in federal prisions.
He allegedly tucked lose tobacco and rolling papers inside the altered lining of his shoes and received about $750 from inmates each time he transported a package into the Leavenworth facility, said acting US Attorney Thomas Beall.
Buckner was indicted by the federal government and will be sentenced on a single count of a public official accepting bribes.
In April, more than one-half dozen people were charged for alleged roles in an elaborate drug-smuggling ring within the privately operated CCA Detention Center in Leavenworth.
